Votes Are In: View the Best Dorm Room on Campus
Instagram contest solicited input on students’ interior design skills
Forget beige walls and harsh fluorescent lighting. Melody You’s room in Danielsen Hall gives off a much more tranquil vibe.
You (COM’20) is the winner of the first-ever #BUCrib Dorm Decor contest, run by the Boston University social media team. The contest—which ran from October 16 through 19—pulled in 28 submissions and went through 4 rounds of voting via Instagram polls, which are new to the platform.
In the final round, over 1,800 votes were cast for You’s room, says contest organizer Emily Truax (COM’13, Questrom’18), assistant director of social media, adding that the team plans to hold the contest again in the future. Winner You received a BU throw pillow, pennant, and mug.
The first thing you might notice about You’s sun-filled room is the large tapestry of a forest scene hanging above the bed. It’s from Urban Outfitters, and “it makes me feel like I’m in the woods,” says You, a Posse scholar and host of the WTBU show It’s Alt Good. “I have the view of the city out my window, so I wanted something that could bring me back to nature.”
Not pictured in the Instagram shot is the advertising major’s desk, a giant Gamma Phi Beta flag (she’s a proud member of the sorority), string lights, vases filled with (artificial) flowers, and a board holding cups. “Many of the cups are from my sorority, and I have some mason jars,” she says. “I’m actually not sure why I collect so many.”
You says she has always been interested in interior design, and once considered it as a career goal. She and her mom have shared a subscription to Architectural Digest since she was in elementary school.
Her room back home in Atlanta, Ga., was similarly decorated, she says, and many items made the move to Boston with her. “I wanted to bring pieces of my home to college, so that when I feel homesick, I’m comforted by knowing I’m sleeping in the same sheets as in high school.”
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